Saturday, March 17, 2012

Pestar has appeared in 2 episodes of
the Ultraman saga, this figure represents his debut in Ultraman: the
Ultimate Hero or as it's referred to Ultraman Powered. The stories
are fairly similar with only a few barely noticeable changes. In
Ultraman Powered Pestar is an aquatic monster that's staked out a
prime oil tanker shipping route as his home and has become very
territorial and hungry for the sweet Texas Tea carried on those
vessels. The WINR at first tried to pursue and the monster using a
high tech submarine called the "Barricuda" but they didn't
take into account how huge Pestar was and after a decent undersea
battle, it escapes. The WINR warns the shipping companies of the
dangers of that particular route, which is brilliant if they planned on
luring the beast out of the ocean for round two.

(do forgive the awful song in the background. Feel free to leave hate messages on that person's youtube page, it's deplorable.)

The very next night Pestar shows up
again and goes straight for an oil refinery to satisfy it's thirst
for oil, but sure wasn't expecting Ultraman Powered to show up.
Caught off guard, Ultraman Powered makes short work out of Pestar by
tossing that big boy in the air and firing his Mega Spectrum Ray at
the monster. Destroyed in true Ultraman fashion (e.i lots of cheesy
sparkles and stock explosion noises) the ocean is safe again.

Some of the main differences between
the first introduction to Pestar and the Ultraman Powered version is
the whole body has been redesigned. The edges of the body are covered
in suckers and Pestar's head looks even more menacing, like a bat
mixed with the Predator. Also the end fight is slightly better, as in
the fight lasts a whole 90 seconds longer and Pestar actually gets a
few good hits in.

(here at Raging Nerdgasm, we like big butts and we cannot lie.)

Pestar, to me at least, turned out
really cool in figure form. Leaps and bounds better than the Marusan
edition, Bandai really did an amazing job capturing how cool the
character's design is. He's a big, bulky bastard and while he may not
offer any articulation whatsoever, he makes up for it with sheer
attention to detail and texturing. The paint job is spot on, even the
light metallic flake on Pestar's backside does a great job at
highlighting his bumpy exterior. Displaying a figure as wide as
Pestar is becomes the only peeve, just because there isn't much room
left on a shelf when he takes up residence. Originally, the figure
was more expensive that other basic Ultraman figures upon it's
initial release in Japan which has translated to an often higher
price on the secondary market.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

(I've decided to start this blog with Saddam stroking a rubber phallus, yes it is very necessary.)

With South Park's many seasons, there
are many memorable characters but almost none more memorable than
Satan. We were introduced very early in the series to Jesus, who had
given up on his pilgrimage to travel the world and free mankind of
their sins and took a prime time slot on Park County Public Access
and occasionally fight Santa Claus in an officially sanctioned boxing
match for supremacy over the Christmas holidays. Satan on the other
hand was introduced to us as lord of the underworld, master of all
sinners and......subservient boyfriend to Saddam Hussein? BRILLIANT!
I mean say what you will about Trey Parker and Matt Stone, but those
men are geniuses. They honestly said that the show doesn't pull it's
punches when it comes to religion, and that goes for all religions
equally. Throughout the show's run (and might I add it's still
running and just as funny as ever), Saddam and Satan have had their
share of lover's quarrels eventually leading to the demise of Saddam.
But it's OK, he suffers a fate worse than death......being dragged
off by a group of rabbid Mormons.

(suck on that)

Mezco's line of South Park figures are
great, but limited places to buy them leaves fans feeling left out.
It's not till recent history that Toys R Us decided in a bold move to
start carrying them in their physical stores, which has led Mezco to
do a general re-issue of the line. The first thing to know is the
figures aren't in any particular scale. Satan here stands roughly 6
inches tall at the top of the horns but then again so does most of
the adult characters in the line ( ie- Chef, Mrs Cartman, Officer
Barbrady). In the cartoon, Satan towers over every character and
probably should have been a deluxe figure but I'm sure budget
constraints as well as limited retail support led to the size problem
I'm left with here. To be honest, Satan is the only figure I own from
the South Park line and I wouldn't own it today if I hadn't seen it
on the counter of a smoke shop at the flea market that was selling
McFarlane Toys and other adult collectibles.

(Is it just me or does Satan has some big ol' John Goodman sized bitch tits? Just look at them, I dare you not to!)

The figure isn't bad at all outside of
the size issue. The matte paint on the figure really harkens back to
the construction paper style of the show. The dark lord is only
articulated at a pivot joint at the shoulders which is fine since
most visuals from the show are of him from the waist up. The sculpt
of the figure is perfect, not a single flaw I can tell. The sculpt is
identical to the visuals of the show. I'm not sure if Mezco is
planning a re-issue of this figure at the moment, so I would suggest
tracking it down on eBay or at your local collectible toy or comic
book store if you're interested.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

As seen in Ultraman: Towards the
Future, one night an abandoned carnival was reactivated by
mysterious circumstances (yep, it's already creepy beyond belief).
When the local police arrived to check it out, the legendary monster
Gerukadon affected the officer's minds. Completely overcome by fear,
the officers fled the scene while Gerukadon gained power from the
Gudis device hidden in the abandoned carnival. One thing leads to
another, like in the case of all Ultraman episodes, and the monster
finally arrives to stomp the crap out of buildings and bring about
the appearance of Ultraman. The fight is quick and to the point,
Ultraman blasts Gerukadon with his power beam and the day is saved by
our silver and red friend.

(This show was the reason I became an insomniac at an early age. It wasn't very popular in my market which won it a 5am time slot on Sunday mornings.)

All in all, I'm not a fan of this
episode. The story is weak, it's fairly boring and with this episode
being Gerukadon's only appearance in the Ultraman saga makes him one
of the more forgettable characters. Unfortunate since I rather liked
the monster's design; giant lizard with a beak, four arms and bat
wings. But so was the case with most of the characters from Towards
the Future, great designs and poor stories.

(I am vengeance, I am the night.......I AM BAT-LIZARD)

I'm rather fond of this version of
Gerukadon, I prefer him to the larger American release from
Dreamworks (not the Steven Spielburg special effects company, but a
short lived toy manufacturer). The colors are much more vibrant and
the sculpt is more like the monster from the show. The only
detracting point is the silver accents, I think they could be duller
and do more to compliment the color scheme in my opinion.
Articulation on this particular figure is rather plentiful; at 2 of
the shoulders, hips, waist, neck and mid tail. In the end, he's one
of my favorite one episode wonders.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Mothra has been one of Godzilla's most
prolific “friend-emies” over the last 4 decades. Appearing in
over 15 movies, we've been bombarded with several incarnations of
Mothra over the years. We've had Mothra in her egg, larva stage,
cocooned and the ever important final stage (hint, it looks like a
moth). Always by her side are the twin tiny high priestesses, called
the shōbijin (or small beauties), that translate and interpret the monster's every
thought. When Mothra appears it's usually to be the savior of Earth;
often doing battle with Godzilla, Battra, King Ghidorah, Death
Ghidorah, Gigan, Dagahra, Monster X and the Sea Monster.

(who is Mothra? Why are we playing such suspenseful music? You'll have to watch this 3 minute trailer to find out!)

(sing little ladies, sing!)

This piece was acquired through Planet
Retro Gallery out of St Pete, Florida. I was nothing but impressed
with the selection and prices at the store, as well as the owner's
knowledge. He admitted it was a bootleg he picked up in Chinatown in
the late 90's and had sold all but this one and couldn't guarantee
that it worked or not. I love a restoration challenge, and even if it
never works it's still a heck of a shelf piece for a portion of the
price of the original. You just rarely get that sort of honesty from
a collectibles shop. It's a factor that keeps me coming back for his
monthly sales.

(adult toy or sofubi?)

(ribbed for your pleasure)

The rubber used for the skin of Larva
Mothra is very similar to the original release from Bandai, the only
different thing is the color. The bootleg is a very light green with
white slopped across to bring out the texture while the original is a
light bronze with silver and black accents along the body. After some
slight tinkering and cleaning, I was able to restore the mechanical
crawling function. From a restoration point of view, the components I
worked on were of a lower quality than I would expect to be in the
Bandai version. With two AA batteries, the bug “crawls” along
with the aide of a wheel underneath while rearing his head back and
lighting up it's red eyes. A real achievement for my collection and
my restoration skills.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

King Joe was sent by the Pedan aliens
as their main weapon to conquer Earth. Arriving on Earth in the form
of 4 ships, the Pedan's ultimate weapon laid siege to a naval fleet
until they garnered the attention of the Ultraseven crew. By the time
they arrived to provide a counter-attack, King Joe was long gone and
on to it's next target. As the four ships arrived at a U.N. Embassy they combined to reveal King Joe's full form, a giant frickin' robot
with some strange protrusions (ie- giant electrode tits on his head,
a rainbow window chest and what I can only describe as bongos on his
ass and hips.) Even with the countermeasures hidden at the embassy,
King Joe seemed near indestructible.

(pretty decent scenes)

Ultraseven soon showed up to save the
day but couldn't seem to breach King Joe's Pedantic Armor. Soon
after exhausting a good deal of his energy, Ultraseven found himself
pinned to the ground and became the recipient of some absolutely
viscious bitch slaps, courtesy of King Joe. At this point Ultraseven
decides the best thing to do is pass the fuck out and hope this alien
quits pummeling him.

As King Joe turns his back to
Ultraseven, the hero lunges forward and knocks King Joe on his
glorious golden ass. Incapable of getting back up again(most likely
due to his bongo ass), King Joe splits into the four ships and flees
with Ultraseven in pursuit.

It was then revealed that the reason
for King Joe's attack on the Embassy was due to a scientist who had
found a chemical that is highly reactive with Pedantic Armor, which
also explained why the Pedan Aliens have come to Earth as well. King
Joe returns, arriving in Tokyo Bay where it trashes a few oil tankers
till Ultraseven shows back up. King Joe once again totally owns
Ultraseven in a pretty decent fight, even though his weakness is
getting knocked on his ass. But Ultraseven has a WMD full of that
Pedantic reactive chemical which he shoots at King Joe,
short-circuiting and destroying the robot once and for all.

King Joe is in my top 5 favorite
Ultraman bad guys (in no particular order Baltan, King Joe, Dada,
Pestar and Red King). As the Ultraman story evolves, so do his
villains but this version of King Joe is my favorite. No techno
cannon, no monotone paint scheme, just very true to the original
design. Simple and slick looking with the perfect shade of gold on
his suit and a rainbow effect through the “honeycomb” on his
chest. The main thing I like about the figure is it's huge! Over 12
inches tall and with some serious weight to him, I've been impressed
and desired this figure for years and was finally lucky enough to
acquire one through Planet Retro Gallery care of my wife for
Valentines day.